Longest bobcat race?

[spruce mountain]

My longest run to date was from this past winter and it is along the same line as Tod's run.We had about 12 to 14 inches of snow with a light crust, The cats were only sinking in about an inch or so if they walked but they fell thru if they ran. The dogs were going right to the bottom. I had a couple of clients and my lead dog is a 2 year old female that is without a doubt going to be the best bobcat dog that I have ever owned or hunted with. Not that I have owned or hunted with a bunch, maybe a dozen. My father found a track about 9:00 am and called me to come look at it. It looked fairly fresh to me but the conditions made it hard to tell for sure. I let sis go on it and she took it out without much trouble. I started walking behind her but she soon blew me out of the race. I decided to walk back to the sled and try to keep up with her that way. She ended up moving it a few miles at a good pace. We did have to help her a couple of times were the cat came out on a couple of differant snowmobile trails, the second one he walked down a good mile and a half. We finally found were he left the trail and by this time it was about 1:00 in the afternoon. Obviously the track wasn't as fresh as I thought. About 150yds from the trail the dogs finally jumped it. They made a quick circle and had it caught. I took one of the clients and walked in and the dogs broke and made another circle and were headed right for us again. I had the hunter get ready and sure enough I saw the cat, about a 20 something pd male walking strait at us with the hounds about 50ft behind. My client shot twice and swore he hit it but I watched both shots hit right behind the cat. We started to walk up and check for sure if he had hit it or not and some how with all the comotion the cat didn't know were we were because he walked right in front of us at 20ft. I thought, oh he's dead and the hunter picked his shotgun up and it went click, he could of sworn he had put in three shells but only loaded 2. The dogs caught it a couple of more times but we were unable to get in and finish the deal.

[spruce mountain]

We ended up picking the dogs up about an hour later when they crossed a main road. The next day we went right back and started freshening up the track again and about 10:00 am put a couple hounds back on the track and about a half hour later they had it jumped again. One of the clients and I got in front of them on a snowmobile trail and sure enouph here comes the cat right at us. My hunter had a hard time seeing it so I just had him wait until he walked out on the trail and he shot it. I walked over to the cat and could see that it wasn't the same cat as the day before. It was a little smaller and lighter in color. I just figured oh well somehow we ended up on a differant cat. The dogs were still coming right at us but about 50yds out they turned hard to the left. I just figured that the cat might of made a circle before it came to the trail but soon it was obvious that they were still running a jumped cat. They paralleled the trail about 400 yds and were swinging right for us again. I saw the cat and recognized it as the cat that we shot at the day before, bigger and darker. he saw me before my hunter could get a shot and ran down over the bank and into a porkie pine den. It was about 1:00 pm. 2 days and we saw him 3 times and shot at him twice and he is still there to run another year. It was bad luck for the female that he had picked up the night before that was running with him. We ran some other dogs with Sis throughout the race but she was the only dog that was on it from start to finish.

[spruce mountain]

This is the cat that we did get. Sis is on the right.

[al baldwin]

C. JOHN & GEORGE I sure have to agree, there are situations where terrain & educated cats make impossible for any hound to hold tight pressure on a jumped bobcat. I have always had a huge appreciation for a hound that can get a cat thru those areas, get back up on the cat and catch that cat. When I had decent bobcat dogs I enjoyed cats that gave them a good challenge & lots of times some cats sure did not disappoint me. Infact they left me wanting to find some cats that would tree easier. Enjoy reading all post & trying to keep open mind. Dewey wish I still had that hound talked about spending most of the day catching that cat on the river bank & able to hunt with you, think, you would realized why some hunters had a lot of respect for him. The one thing I would have changed about him was to have him give more mouth as he advanced a loose, but, sure that worked to his advantage. Tom Barnett was the breeder of that hound, & told me the Dam was from Charlie Tant line & sire came from K O Mullins line. Good job Spruce Mountain! Thanks & Happy Easter to all Al BAldwin

[JakeG]

Well I would have to agree with an earlier post. Somebody said a 10 min cat race isn't a cat race. There is very few places in my area where there isn't blow downs and educated cats. I've hunted rougher terrain and caught cats in 10 or 15 min but I guarantee u those cats were not educated. If they were I wouldn't have a prayer at catching them. I enjoy every cat race long or short. Short races are good for young dogs to learn how to locate because the dogs are still fresh and are lookin harder. Long races are nice cause u really get to test the dogs and they are more challenging. I never take any cat for granted. I love everything about it. I've been fortunate to learn a lot frOm real hounds men like my dad Larry Beggs and Kurt Preston. Those guys know what it takes to make good dogs and they know how to have fun. At the end of the night if the dogs did good and the good lords willin we might get lucky and catch a few. Thanks for your replies